Dogs Trust’s Red Ted lands on his paws at last

After 756 days at Dogs Trust Shoreham, long-termer Red Ted the German Spitz has truly landed on his paws.

Paul Turner and Jonathan Merritt, from Hailsham in East Sussex, adopted Red Ted at the end of January, and now he leads a life full of luxury and love with them.

Red Ted and family in Red's new bedroom ' complete with double bed

During his time at the centre, staff discovered lots of quirks around Red Ted’s personality and worked hard to make him feel at home. They found he enjoyed a bedtime story, and that he had to sleep with the light on, so left a night light in his kennel to help him to relax and fall asleep. They also found a final night time stroll helped him to nod off.

His new owners have now given Red an entire room in their house as his bedroom, complete with a night light by his double bed.

Dogs Trust Shoreham rehoming centre manager Tracey Rae said: “We couldn’t have wished for a more perfect home for Red, his new owners absolutely adore him. Red was known to take a while to build bonds with new people but incredibly after a number of visits from Paul and Jonathan it got to the stage where he would whimper when he watched them leave – and we knew this was a sign they were the ones for him.”

Paul and Jonathan added: “It took around two months of visiting Red before everybody felt he was ready to come home with us – but he was worth the wait. We were determined to make the relationship work and so put in lots of time and effort in order to build a strong and trusting bond with him. We love spoiling him and we couldn’t imagine our lives without him.”